Register owner starts naming rights unit

Freedom Communications Inc., owner of the Orange County Register, has launched a new venture that focuses on selling corporate sponsorships for naming or presentation rights to companies and organizations.

The company has signed three contracts to date to negotiate naming rights or sponsorship deals for organizations that want to increase their public visibility.

Freedom has agreed to represent the Anaheim Ducks hockey team; the Petersen Automotive Museum; and MacGillivray Freeman Films, a Laguna Beach-based company that makes IMAX documentaries and is negotiating other deals.

The Freedom Partnership Development group is a separate division from the Register newsroom and the company's magazines, said John Church, Freedom's vice president overseeing the program.

John Murray, vice president of audience development at the Newspaper Association of America, said Freedom's move into naming and partnership rights is one of many efforts newspapers are undertaking to develop new sources of income to replace lost advertising revenues. Newspaper ad revenue nationwide was $23.9 billion last year – less than half of the 2000 peak of $48.7 billion, the Pew Research Center reported in February.

Newspapers reported $3 billion in alternative sources of income last year, according to the association. Most of the revenue came from newspapers helping companies with their digital marketing and e-commerce needs or doing event planning or increasing their commercial printing.

"This allows a newspaper to figure out how to leverage its relationships, leadership role and marketing muscle," he said. "It's a win-win."

Church said Freedom is taking a new approach to naming rights beyond putting sponsor names on buildings and arenas. The company acts as an agent to represent organizations in assessing the value of their property rights and to creatively package those rights and market them to top-level sponsors.

"What people don't generally do is non-sports and presenting rights that are not for a building for sports," Church said. "We're laser-focused on the best-in-class properties."

In addition to finding sponsoring partners, Freedom puts together packages of marketing and other services to help the sponsor and recipient get maximum exposure from a relationship.

"Freedom's goal is to successfully package and promote our clients' properties and in so doing, to grow their organizations and our community," Church said.

The deal with MacGillivray Freeman may be the most distinct of the three contracts. The company is the world's biggest independent producer of IMAX films and is known for educational family entertainment. The company produced "To Fly," a documentary about the history of flight, which has played at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air & Space Museum since 1976.

Freedom will handle presentation rights for MacGillivray's One World One Ocean series, which promotes ocean conservation.

"The campaign for One World One Ocean is all about inspiring people to learn more about the ocean," said Shaun MacGillivray, a producer and the managing director at MacGillivray Freeman.

The One World One Ocean campaign began last year with "To the Arctic." Two more films are in the works – "Journey to the South Pacific" due out next year and "Ocean Planet" scheduled for release in 2015-16. Freedom is seeking a corporate sponsor for the presentation rights for the film series, including opening credits and associated events surrounding the campaign.

"It will be called 'One World One Ocean presented by XYZ company,'" Church said.

He said the Anaheim Ducks agreement was modeled after the Los Angeles Kings' presentation rights deal with McDonald's. The sponsorship will include the corporate sponsor's logo on team jerseys and at games and also extend to the Ducks Foundation and the team's other community outreach efforts.

Tim Ryan, vice president and chief operating office of the Ducks, said the deal will help the team take advantage of Freedom's media and marketing expertise to provide a package of incentives to a sponsor.

"This will allow us to get in front of potential partners and have all the pieces presented at one time," Ryan said.

The agreement with Petersen is a part of an effort to transform the nonprofit museum and reach a broader audience, said Executive Director Terry Karges. "Finding a group like Freedom Communications will help us to take that next step," Karges said.

Besides finding a presenting sponsor, Freedom will help the Petersen get the word out about its car collection.

"There are tremendous stories," said Church, whose background is in motor racing. "We want to tell those stories and give a sponsor exclusive rights and access to the displays."